• David H. Blackwell, professor emeritus of statistics at the University of California at Berkeley, received an honorary doctorate from North Carolina State University. Dr. Blackwell, now 88 years old, taught on the Berkeley faculty for 35 years before his retirement from teaching in 1989.

• Arielle Drummond, a doctoral student in biomedical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, will receive the 2008 Black Engineer of the Year Award for Student Leadership. The award is given out by Black Engineer & InformationTechnology magazine.